Posted by Roger Wardale on March 25, 2014 at 11:17:59 user RogerW.
In Reply to: Re: New Mixed Moss posted by Duncan on March 25, 2014 at 02:52:30:
i was glad to see Ken's article in Moss as it will remind people of the fun of Swallowdale-searching.
We corresponded last September after he had completed his first draft.
Some years ago, armed with details of the location of several possible Swallowdales that others (including Ken) had thought the 'original' valley, I went with Claire Kendall-Price and Ted Alexander to scour the Blawith fells. We found Hodge Wife Ghyll easily enough, but it did not strike a chord with us. We felt much as Doug Faunt did, that it did not look anything like Swallowdale. We had a fun day.
Although I believe Clifford Webb was sent to/shown Long Scars to make his drawings, when we have a description by AR, I favour following the description in the books.
I sent the following to Ken, to explain my reservations — "You make much of the illustrations and little of the text, just mentioning ARs description fitting HWG.
Ransome wrote
slopes of rock and heather . . . . precipice of rock with heather growing in the cracks. . . . grass, bracken and loose stones .. . . . steep banks of rock, bracken and heather . . . . steep wall of grey stone . . . .loose screes to avoid. . . . rocks to climb round and clumps of heather to hold on by . . . . loose screes on the sides of the valley . . . .'slippery you might say that rock is (Knickerbockerbreaker) . . . . "there's a better over there. Not so steep. . . .the noise of stones slipping and scrambling feet. . . . clattering of loose screes . . . .wild rocky valley"
This is not a description of HWG which is really wild, but not rocky, as the photographs show all too clearly,
Swallowdale = Shangri-la, yes? I believe the real Swallowdale exists only on the printed page.